Zadie Smith: "I Say What I See" Zadie Smith: "I Say What I See"
A conversation with the acclaimed author about her new essay collection, Dead and Alive.
Nov 7, 2025 / Q&A / Edna Bonhomme
The Marriage Plot From 50,000 Feet Above The Marriage Plot From 50,000 Feet Above
Kate Folks’s Sky Daddy pokes fun at the need for love at the core of most fiction—dramatizing one woman’s quest for romance through her very literal lust for airplanes.
Oct 30, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Laura Adamczyk
Chester Himes’s Harlem Noirs Chester Himes’s Harlem Noirs
Himes helped reinvent the idea of the detective novel. He also transformed it into a powerful vehicle for social criticism.
Oct 20, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Gene Seymour
“To Free Someone Else”: Toni Morrison the Book Editor “To Free Someone Else”: Toni Morrison the Book Editor
A recent book on her career in publishing makes the case that the great American novelist should also be seen as a pathbreaking editor.
Oct 6, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Marina Magloire
Trump, Like Sauron, Is Not Inevitable—but Only if We Refuse Despair Trump, Like Sauron, Is Not Inevitable—but Only if We Refuse Despair
J.R.R. Tolkien has a message for us: Don’t give in to Trump.
Oct 3, 2025 / Aaron Regunberg
On the Road With Joe Westmoreland On the Road With Joe Westmoreland
The writer’s only novel, Tramps Like Us, is a classic of queer literature—one that crystallizes the agony and the ecstasy of coming of age during the HIV era.
Sep 25, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Sasha Geffen
Susan Choi’s Big Novel of History Susan Choi’s Big Novel of History
In Flashlight, Choi examines the tragedies—past and present—that haunt a family living in Japan.
Sep 10, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Sarah Chihaya
The Ghosts of Ingeborg Bachmann The Ghosts of Ingeborg Bachmann
Haunted by a dark past, the poet and novelist tried to explore the limits of language itself.
Sep 9, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Becca Rothfeld
Catherine Lacey’s Missed Connections Catherine Lacey’s Missed Connections
In her most personal work, The Möbius Book, Lacey uses a devastating moment of heartbreak to ruminate on the messy intersections between life and writing.
Aug 13, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Alana Pockros
Mark Twain’s Many Lives Mark Twain’s Many Lives
A new biography depicts the different sides of the American author.
Aug 11, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Adam Hochschild